2020 election

There are now less than five months to go before the first votes are cast in the Democratic presidential nominating contest. So the spotlight is going to be even hotter on the 10 candidates who made the cut for Thursday's debate in Houston. (Follow NPR's live analysis here.)

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate, former Marine fighter pilot, Amy McGrath says her message of putting country above political party sets her apart from other candidates who have tried, and failed, to unseat Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. McGrath stopped in Paducah on Monday as part of a campaign tour across the region. Matt Markgraf sat down with McGrath outside a local coffee shop to talk about her positions on big issues and how she believes she can beat McConnell in 2020.

Prominent Kentucky Republicans are urging grassroots efforts to expand GOP influence in Frankfort by flipping the last two Democratic constitutional offices in the upcoming election. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Governor Matt Bevin and Congressman James Comer joined incumbent officers and Republican office-seekers at the First District Lincoln Reagan Dinner Saturday night in Murray.

Some members of the Republican National Committee andgrassroots Republicansare backing an effort to block potential primary challengers to President Trump, even though party insiders are insisting it is too late to change the rules for the 2020 campaign.

President Trump claimed some personal victories in the 2018 midterm results, and as he ticked them off at a news conference on Wednesday he might as well have been walking through the Electoral College map for 2020.